2000 - Advocacy Guide to Women's World Demands

A WORLD IN NEED OF CHANGE

The World We Live In

The persistence of inequality in a world of increasing wealth

We live in a world where inequality reigns. As we near the year 2000, profound disparities still exist between women and men, North and South, East and West, and within the population of a given country, between rich and poor, the young and the elderly, and the urban and rural landscape.

We live in a world that has witnessed spectacular technological and scientific developments, substantial increases in industrial and agricultural productivity, and a communications explosion. Nonetheless, billions of people are without work and without even basic access to food, safe water, housing, health care, education, culture, information, energy sources, and transportation. Everywhere, we are now experiencing the paradox of people becoming more impoverished in societies that are becoming progressively wealthier. Humanity does not want for resources nor fall short in producing wealth; rather, it suffers from the serious problem of universal access, equitable distribution and responsible management of these resources and this wealth which are not unlimited. Women are the majority of those who suffer at the hands of this skewed development.

Complacency and steadfast tolerance of violence against women

We live in a world where violence against women is still universally present in the form of wife battering, sexual assault and abuse, genital mutilation and systematic rape in wartime. This is the fate of millions of women.

Violence against women is a consequence of the historically unequal power relations between women and men; it constitutes a legal violation of a woman's human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is a universal reality, existing in all societies regardless of income, class, and culture.

All women are affected. It would be difficult to find one woman who, at one time or another in her life, had not been afraid merely because she was a woman. Simply walking in the street after dark or working at night may represent serious personal safety problems for women.

Physical, sexual, and psychological violence is too often perpetrated or tolerated by States that prioritize custom or tradition over the respect of fundamental freedoms. In some countries, the simple fact of being female is sufficient cause to trample on one's human rights

Deep crisis in our culture and in solidarity

We live in a world undergoing a crisis of identity, values, plans and social cohesion. It is a world where human relations are soured by the predominance of economic ideologies. Our world is one where art, literature, theatre, poetry, music and dance are perilously relegated to the bottom of the list of economic "priorities", and where "being" remains subordinate to "having", whilst the reverse should govern our lives. It is a world where culture is in a state of shock, causing us to lose our bearings and provoking a retreat into religious sects and fundamentalism, racism, sexism, intolerance, homophobia and general intolerance to differences. This crisis bars productive dialogue between people of different cultures, denying us access to one of the greatest assets of humankind: our diversity.

The eternal ravages of war

We live in a world ravaged by seventy-five "low intensity" armed conflicts that are decimating populations and straining the budgets of the nations involved, while filling the coffers of the arms industry. The inter-ethnic massacres and Western bombings of the former Yugoslavia show that men continue to favour war as a means to "settle" their conflicts. However, during periods of armed conflict, women suffer specific forms of violence, including systematic rape that has been recognized as a war crime only since 1993. In all corners of theworld, women are rising up to demand an end to the hostilities and to find peaceful solutions to the conflicts.

A bulimic productivity jeopardizes our planet

We live in a world where the balance between people and nature has been gravely upset, and where runaway growth of consumption has long been present in the so-called "developed" countries. There is a "consume and produce" bulimia-a considerable amount of which is for useless objects-which keeps the world trapped in a vicious circle: we produce in order to consume, and we consume because we produce! This ideology of unbridled productivity depletes natural resources and ravages the environment, causing harm to the planet and jeopardizing future generations. Once again, women make up the majority of those who suffer due to this hollow growth.

Appalling corruption as a system

We live in a world where corruption, in several countries, is a system unto itself, and where it is "legalized" on an international level. How else can one call the excessive wealth concentrated in so few hands, these colossal fortunes reaped from public property to the detriment of fiscal obligations toward States, often with their complicity?

This wealth is systematically stolen, embezzled and laundered by private business, all kinds of corporations, financial institutions, civil servants at all levels, political leaders and even entire governments. This wealth is stashed in tax havens and banking secrecy hides the identity of these thieves by offering them a kind of impunity that only dictators have been able to enjoy until now.

Failure of democracy and State responsibility to citizens

We live in a world where governments often refuse to meet their obligations to their citizens, and where they abdicate before the dictates of the marketplace, now organized as an unelected supranational power composed of huge international institutions, banks, industrial corporations, multinationals and so on.

This supranational force imposes its anti-deficit creed on governments in the form of structural adjustment programs in the South, social service cuts in the North, the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and other such plans. States are often complacent or even complicit in regards to these supranational forces by ensuring generous subsidies, tax breaks or by offering credit at preferred rates.

We live in a world where democracy is at the mercy of these new "warlords" who are above the law, suffer no sanctions and are accountable to no one.

The disturbing trend of international "protection" systems

We live in a world where people are trying to civilize the relations between countries and to temper somewhat the power of the market. At the dawn of the third millenium, it is clear that civility has broken down. The UN has a great deal of difficulty in preventing or resolving conflicts, and the economic powers reign as lords and masters like never before.

A WORLD BORN OF TWO GLOBAL FORCES

The domination of a single worldwide economic system: neo-liberal capitalism

We live in a world whose dominant economic system, neo-liberal capitalism, is fundamentally inhuman. It is a system governed by unbridled competition that strives for privatization, liberalization, and deregulation. It is a system entirely driven by the dictates of the market and where full enjoyment of basic human rights ranks below the laws of the marketplace. The result: the crushing social exclusion of large segments of the population, threatening world peace and the future of the planet.

The domination over women through a social and political system: patriarchy

Patriarchy is not a 20th century invention, but rather the product of thousands of years, at variable intensities and in different cultures. Over time, this system has gotten stronger. It is a system whose values, rules, standards and policies are based on the supposition that women are naturally inferior as human beings. It is based on the hierarchy of the roles that societies define for men and for women.

Patriarchy can be seen in all spheres of life and is demonstrated by various stereotypes that condition or characterize the relationships between women and men. At the dawn of the third millenium, we are still living in a world dominated by this system which enshrines male power and causes violence and exclusions.

Neo-liberalism and patriarchy feed off each other and reinforce each other in order to maintain the vast majority of women in a situation of cultural inferiority, social devaluation, economic marginalization, "invisibility" of their existence and labour, and the marketing and commercialization of their bodies. All these situations closely resemble apartheid.

BUILDING A WORLD OF RESISTANCE

If we think back to the workers struggles in the 19th century, and the advances made by social movements (ecological, pacifist, grassroots), teamed with the growing involvement of the State, we can see the efforts that have enabled us to "civilize" the excesses of emerging capitalism. Feminist movements have led fierce fights for the recognition of women's fundamental rights in all spheres.

Today, we also live in a world where there are countless initiatives from the independent women's movement. These initiatives constitute significant resistance to inequalities, oppressions and exclusions. One need only reflect on the many advocacy groups, cooperatives, community kitchens, women's centers, shelters, etc. We can also cite the struggles for access to housing and for a cleaner world, unionization, democracy within government, better social and health services, education for children and environmental protection. Women have always been active and persistent participants in these struggles; they have often been the initiators and leaders.

THE WORLD WE WANT TO BUILD

The World March of Women in the Year 2000 aims at breaking away from neo-liberal capitalism once and for all, around the world. This involves far more than reforming the existing system; it means creating a new system based on the experiments and the alternative solutions proposed by women and social movements locally, nationally and internationally.

The World March of Women in the Year 2000 aims to bring down patriarchy and eradicate all forms of violence against women around the world. We condemn the inaction, inefficiency and the silence of States, the very structures that must provide the means to fight violence against women.

We demand that respect be accorded to our bodies and our person. We expect concrete action from States.

We want to enter the next millenium with the certain knowledge that we can build a better world, one that is more peaceful and human. We are marching in peace to put human beings at the center of our concerns and to broaden solidarity to a worldwide level.

We are marching so that in the next millennium, our fundamental freedoms, inseparable from our human rights and undeniably universal in nature, are implemented once and for all. We are determined in our belief that all human rights are interdependent and that the values of equality, justice, peace, and solidarity will prevail.

We are marching to demonstrate that our participation in political, economic, cultural and social life is the starting point of liberation for ourselves and for our communities. Too often, we are excluded from decision-making on issues that directly concern us.

We are marching to put an end to the process of homogenization of culture and the marketing and commercialization of women in the media to suit the needs of the market.

We are marching to reaffirm our commitment to peace and to the protection of the democratic operation of nation-states.

We are marching to consolidate new options, based on principles of cooperation and sharing, aimed at instituting crucial changes.

We are marching to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women.

We are marching to create a world based on sharing our common spiritual and material wealth so that every woman and man has the means to make a living and make living worthwhile.